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ISPs May Be Selling Your Web Clicks

Mozzarella writes "Could our ISPs be selling our click data without us even knowing it? It seems like the practice is happening a lot more than we realize, and can be tracked for each user. Complete Incorporated's CTO David Cancel told Ars Technica that his company (an internet research firm) licenses click information from ISPs for 'millions of dollars' to figure out how we use the web. From the article: 'He did not give a specific figure about what this broke down to in terms of dollars per ISP user, although someone in the audience estimated that it was in the range of 40 per user per month — this estimate was erroneously attributed to Cancel himself in some reports on the event. Cancel said that this clickstream data is 'much more comprehensive' than data that is normally gleaned through analyzing search queries.'"

8 of 110 comments (clear)

  1. Apologies to HAL 9000 by athloi · · Score: 2, Funny

    "Good lord, it's full of... porn"

  2. Insert joke here by thib_gc · · Score: 2, Funny

    Insert joke about a click business represented by a guy named Cancel here.

    1. Re:Insert joke here by fbjon · · Score: 2, Funny

      I won't Allow that.

      --
      True confidence comes not from realising you are as good as your peers, but that your peers are as bad as you are.
    2. Re:Insert joke here by Joebert · · Score: 2, Funny

      It has Abbot & Costello written all over it.

      --
      Wanna fight ? Bend over, stick your head up your ass, and fight for air.
  3. Re:Is this legal? by Harmonious+Botch · · Score: 4, Funny

    Remember that EULA you clicked 'I agree' on without reading? I agree.
  4. So, who's going to be the first to... by msauve · · Score: 2, Funny

    write a randomizer (using wget?) to pollute their data?

    --
    "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
  5. Re:Who gives a rats ass? by spun · · Score: 5, Funny

    You all act so fuckin high and mighty - Privacy is a moot point to argue when you live in your parents basement.

    You know I'm right


    Son, your mother and I have said it before and we'll say it again: if you didn't have such a fixation on ostrich porn, we wouldn't have to monitor your net connection. When you're 18 and you have a place of your own then you can look at all the flightless bird porn you like, but not a moment sooner. Do you have any idea what it did to your little sister to come home and find you naked and covered in egg yolks with your head in a box of sand and feathers stuck up your ass?

    --
    - None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
  6. Windows Vista Version by mikehilly · · Score: 1, Funny
    Looks like you are clicking a link...

    Cancel or Allow Cancel to view your clicks?

    huh?